repared for every
struggle, even with my father, in order that I might keep Marguerite.

"Then, the moment is come when you must live otherwise."

"Why, father?"

"Because you are doing things which outrage the respect that you imagine
you have for your family."

"I don't follow your meaning."

"I will explain it to you. Have a mistress if you will; pay her as a
man of honour is bound to pay the woman whom he keeps, by all means; but
that you should come to forget the most sacred things for her, that
you should let the report of your scandalous life reach my quiet
countryside, and set a blot on the honourable name that I have given
you, it can not, it shall not be."

"Permit me to tell you, father, that those who have given you
information about me have been ill-informed. I am the lover of Mlle.
Gautier; I live with her; it is the most natural thing in the world.
I do not give Mlle. Gautier the name you have given me; I spend on her
account what my means allow me to spend; I have no debts; and, in short,
I am not in a position which authorizes a father to say to his son what
you have just said to me."

"A father is always authorized to rescue his son out of evil paths. You
have not done any harm yet, but you will do it."

"Father!"

"Sir, I know more of life than you do. There are no entirely pure
sentiments except in perfectly chaste women. Every Manon can have her
own Des Grieux, and times are changed. It would be useless for the
world to grow older if it did not correct its ways. You will leave your
mistress."

"I am very sorry to disobey you, father, but it is impossible."

"I will compel you to do so."

"Unfortunately, father, there no longer exists a Sainte Marguerite to
which courtesans can be sent, and, even if there were, I would follow
Mlle. Gautier if you succeeded in having her sent there. What would you
have? Perhaps am in the wrong, but I can only be happy as long as I am
the lover of this woman."

"Come, Armand, open your eyes. Recognise that it is your father who
speaks to you, your father who has always loved you, and who only
desires your happiness. Is it honourable for you to live like husband
and wife with a woman whom everybody has had?"

"What does it matter, father, if no one will any more? What does it
matter, if this woman loves me, if her whole life is changed through the
love which she has for me and the love which I have for her? What does
it matter, if she has become a dif